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THE WILD WEST

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Following the Civil War, settlers streamed into the lands between the Mississippi R. and the Rockies, better known as the Great Plains. WHY?

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A. Many southerners and freedmen took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862. 1. Federal govt offered 160 acres for free had to live on & farm the land for 5 years. 2. Difficult life (few trees, limited water, extreme temps.) 3. Sodbusters (built houses out of chunks of Earth) often lost homesteads b/c of drought, erosion, & overuse of the land

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B. New technologies made farming on the Great Plains profitable 1. Mechanical reaper = a harvesting machine to cut wheat and corn more efficiently Invented by Cyrus McCormick 2. Railroads linked resources and markets - opened lands in the west & encouraged settlement.

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C. Raising cattle leads to the era of the cowboy 1. Huge demand for beef in the Civil War 2. RRs shipped the meat quickly 3. Long drive = cowboys herded Texas longhorns to RR in Kansas 4. barbed wire cheap fences to protect fields from cattle herds

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E. In 1890, the Census Bureau reported that there was no more frontier left

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F. Conflict with the American Indians 1. Indians pushed onto reservations deprived of hunting grounds for buffalo 2. U.S. govt broke treaties with the Indians & had little respect for their culture 3. U.S. plan to assimilate the Indians failed!

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